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Somerville preschool runs lottery to assign 3- and 4-year-old slots; waitlist posted online
Summary
A Somerville Public School District staff member conducted a preschool lottery to assign spots for 3- and 4-year-olds and to create a waitlist; the district posted the final lottery order on its website and emailed assigned numbers to families.
A Somerville Public School District staff member ran a preschool lottery to allocate openings for 3- and 4-year-old students and establish a waitlist, and said the district posted the final order on its website.
The lottery matters to families seeking early-education placements in Somerville because it determines who receives the limited preschool openings and who is placed on the waitlist for future vacancies.
"Welcome to Summerville School's preschool lottery for 3 and 4 year old students," the staff member said, describing the program's classroom model that mixes 3- and 4-year-olds so younger children can benefit from peer modeling and older children can develop leadership and social-emotional skills. The staff member explained the procedure: "All numbers representing 4 year old students have been added to the wheel. We will spin the wheel to add students in order of spots. Once preschool 4 spots have been filled, you will continue to spin the wheel to create an order for the wait list. All final numbers in order have been put on the website."
According to the staff member, families should have received an email with each child's assigned lottery number before the event. The district used a randomized "wheel" mechanism to draw numbers for 4-year-olds first; after the 4-year-old cohort's spots are filled, the lottery continued to determine the order of the waitlist. During the drawing the staff member read a sequence of assigned lottery numbers aloud.
The lottery was presented as an administrative procedure rather than a legislative action; the staff member characterized it as a process to fill available preschool spots and to create a ranked waitlist. The district posted the final ordered list of lottery numbers on its website and instructed families to reference their emailed assigned lottery number for next steps.
Families seeking additional information were directed to check the Somerville Public School District website and their email for their assigned lottery numbers and the posted final order.
